Finalists

Winner

PRIME – Making HIV History

Summary of work

Despite decades of campaigning, the ‘safe sex’ message does not appear to be getting through because the number of annual HIV diagnoses has remained at around 6,000 for the last five years.

While we know which risk factors increase someone’s exposure to the virus, no one had ever developed a method to predict someone’s imminent risk of becoming HIV positive by looking at his or her historical clinical data and then actively intervening to try to reduce that risk.

A risk predictor was developed to identify people with a >10% chance of catching HIV within a year. People that matched the criteria were invited on to a lifestyle intervention called PRIME - a digital support service that spoke in a sexually positive tone and provided advice to suit every lifestyle, even if that meant advising people that still wanted to practice risky sex.

The results saw a 94% fall in HIV infection risk, along with a >50% reduction in other sexually transmitted diseases, and has been attributed as one of the key factors in the 42% reduction in HIV diagnoses in the wider clinic population.

Judges' comments

This was an impressive, bold and brilliant campaign that absolutely blew us away. It not only changed lives, but the metrics were mind blowing and it showed a real passion. We would not only want to be part of this team, but the work made us proud to be part of the industry. The best campaign we’ve seen in a long time - it had absolutely everything.

Find out what co-the chair of judges Annabelle Sandeman, senior judge Neil Flash and previous award winner Jan Steele have to say on how the judging process works, what the judges focus on, tips on what helps and what distracts within an entry and get insights into how previous winners have created that stand out submission.